>> tonight syria agrees to inspections. the u.n. is cleared to visit the site of a suspected chemical attack as pressure mounts on president obama to punish the assad regime. holly williams in london and jeff pegues in washington have the latest. >> california's rim wildfire rages out of control threatening more homes and some of yosemite national park's precious sequoia trees. bigad shabbate is on the scene. >> a tragic battle ends for a florida boy with rare brain eating amoeba. >> and captain america, jeff glor interviews an american soccer superstar who has left the european stage to come play at home. >> looking forward to getting back to doing a little bit mor syria today

agreed to a cease-fire to allow the inspectors to work. 355 people died on the outskirts of damascus wednesday from what appears to be a chemicalave two reports, first to holly williams in london. >> reporter: the breakthrough came 24 hours after the u.n.'s high representative for disarmament affairs angela kane arrived in damascus. syrian state tv announced that the government, which denies using chemical weapons, will

allow u.n. weapons inspectors to start their investigation tomorrow. there's mounting evidence that there was a chemical strike against civilians. scores of internet videos show people convulsing and foaming at the nose and mouth. the syrian opposition claims hundreds of people were killed. but in the videos, none of the dead have any obvious injuries. that is all consistent with the use of a nerve agent. now the inspectors will try to determine for sure whether chemical weapons were used. the u.n. investigation can only answer some of the questions around this deadly attack. the weapons inspectors want to find out conclusively whether it was a chemical strike but it's not their job to say who was responsible. jim? >> axelrod: holly, thank you. the obama administration is considering, quote, all options in the wake of syria's suspected chemical attack. but with the international community divided over what to

do, and with americans weary after years of war, the president's options may be few. more now from jeff pegues. >> reporter: a senior administration official now acknowledges that there is very little doubt that a chemical weapon was used by the syrian regime against civilians, signaling that al-assad government has crossed a red- line set by president obama last year. the administration is weighing military action, but any plan is unlikely to include boots on the ground. cbs news reported friday the pentagon is considering launching cruise missiles, and is moving naval forces into place. potential targets include command bunkers and launchers used to fire chemical weapons. president obama told cnn the u.s. has to be mindful of the reaction. >> jumping into stuff, that does not turn out well. gets us mired in very difficult situations. can result in us being drawn in to very expensive, difficult,

costly interventions that actually breed more resentment in the region. >> no one knows that better than former secretary of state colin powell who in 2003 made the case for war against iraq at the u.n.. he believes the u.s. should not get involved in a civil war. >> i have no affection for mr. assad. i have dealt with him. i know him. and he is pathological liar with respect to my interaction with him. but at the same time i'm less sure of the resistance. >> reporter: but doing nothing has its own consequences according to syrian expert andrew tabler. >> the problem is at this point if the red line is not held, we're going to have more refugees flowing out into syria's neighbors. so the president now has to make a decision, the conflict of syria is spilling out over its borders, it is no longer containable and it's therefore threatening what he calls core u.s. interests. >> reporter: obama

administration comments have prompted the russians to warn the u.s. not to jump to conclusions before the u.n. has completed its investigation. jim? >> axelrod: jeff pegues at the white house, thank you. in california, high winds are complicating the battle against a raging wildfire in and around yosemite national park. the week old fire continues to grow and is only 7% contained. tonight it threatens more than 5,500 homes. and now some of the park's towering sequoia trees. here is bigad shaban. >> right now we are in this area, that is the hot spot right now. >> reporter: safety officer sam lobese is one of over 2,000 firefighters trying to battle a monster that is burning around and into one of the west's most cherished landscapes, yosemite national park. how do you protect a national treasure? >> you know, you go in. you do what you can. make fire lines, make fire breaks. whatever it takes. and then you throw in the factor of a fire creating its own

weather, it just compounds the factor of putting the fire out. >> reporter: the fight is to save homes and most have been spared. there is also a battle to protect national resources, like the major water supplier to one of the nation's largest cities. >> that is 80% of san francisco's drinking water, it is a major deal. plus we have major power lines that go to the bay area that could be interrupted. >> reporter: but the tallest order may be to protect the giant sequoias, majestic trees that don't just take years to grow, they take millennia and they're in the fire's path. when it comes to the giant sequoia, national park service officer tom medema takes the fight personally. >> it is a big deal and you can look at the patch on my shoulder, it has a sequoia. it is emblematic of the national park service. it is really unthinkable to lose the sequoias. they've survived fire for 2,000 to 3,000 years. >> reporter: seven days after it

began, the rim fire show those signs of slowing down. and how long could it be before the entire fire is put out? >> i think 100% dead out is going to be the wintertime. >> reporter: so months. >> months. >> reporter: and the magnitude of the wildfire cannot be overstated. these aren't just clouds blanketing much of the horizon behind me, it's smoke. and in fact it is so i thick in some parts that today the national park service began closing some of the campgrounds on the northern part of yosemite. so jim, evacuations there now are under way not because of the flames, but because of the smoke. >> axelrod: thank you. wildfires like this one are affected by the weather but they also create their own weather. for more let's turn to meteorologist david bernard at our miami station wfor. david, what kind of weather patterns are we likely to see coming out of this fire? >> jim, one phenomenon we could be talking about are what we call fire worlds. and we have two elements that come together, intense heat and turbulent winds in

the atmosphere. those come together to form whirling eddies of air. sometimes those eddies tighten like a tornado like structure. they're only a few feet across but with that intense heat swirling they can cause intensive damage even on a locallized level. >> right now parts of the southwest are actually being soaked. any chance that rain will help fight this fire? >> it doesn't look like it. this is the moisture left over from tropical storm evo and again it will stay well to the south of the fires. but areas like las vegas and phoenix, we could be talking about major flash flooding in the deserts, 1 to 2 inches are going to be likely. a couple spots could see in these areas maybe 2 to 3 inches of rain, possibly even a little bit higher than that. >> david, thank you. >> the actress who won the most tony awards in broadway history has died. julie harris was honored with six tonys, including roles as sally bowles, and emily big dickinson in "the bell of amherst." in "east of eden," she starred opposite james dean and of

course tv viewers may remember her from "knots landing." julie harris was 87 years old. >> later, clint dempsey gets set to make his debut in seattle after leaving soccer stardom in europe behind. a newborn panda at the national zoo gets its first checkup and there's progress on a giant telescope to probe into deep space. those stories when the "cbs evening news" continues. ♪ [ crashing ] [ male announcer ] when your favorite food starts a fight, fight back fast with tums. heartburn relief that neutralizes acid on contact and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum tum tum tums!

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that doctors say is almost always fatal. one say 12-year-old girl in arkansas who is fighting to stay alive. as mark strassmann reports,ed other is a 12-year-old boy in florida who will not survive. >> reporter: 12-year-old zachary contracted the brain eating parasite three weeks ago while knee boarding with friends in a water filled ditch near his home. tonight a boy who always had boundless energy is brain dead, and hooked to a ventilator. his struggle inspired an outpouring of support, on facebook today his father posted i hope that zack continues to touch people and his time here is remembered forever. the battle is over for zack, but he won the war. doctors believe zack inhaled an amoeba which traveled to his brain where it began destroying tissue and attacking his nervous system. the microscopic single celled organism is commonly found in bodies of warm fresh water especially during the hot summer months. >> it infects the brain and spinal chord and destroyed brain tissue and brain cells.

and the body's reaction to that is to cause brain swelling. >> reporter: cases are extremely rare. only 28 infections were reported in the united states between 2003 and 2012. but they are almost always fatal. of all the cases in the last 50 years, only two patients have survived. tonight there's another child struggling with the illness. 12-year-old kaley hardick who got sick after a trip to a water park on july 19th and is in a hospital. she reportedly is responding to an experimental treatment. but zack's parents are making plans to take their son off his ventilator and donate his organs. mark strassmann, cbs news, atlanta. >> at the university of arizona they are a significant step closer to completing a telescope that will be one of the world's largest. technicians at the stuart observatory mirror lab in tucson melted glass in a furnace more than 2100 degrees in order to create

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>> axelrod: the japanese little leaguers were crowned world champions defeating team california from chula vista 6-4 in the finals played in williams port, pennsylvania this afternoon it was a heartbreaking end for california. the winning run was at the plate, but he hit into a double play. for the past six years soccer star clint dempsey has caused an unlikely role for an american playing at the sport's highest levels. playing in the english premier league dempsey didn't just survive, he thrived. but earlier this month the texas native decided to return home. tonight he makes his debut for his brand-new club the seattle sounders. here's jeff glor. >> reporter: the announcement stunned the world of soccer. >> i was already starting to get the inch, to be honest with you. i wanted to come back to the states.

>> reporter: with a four year deal worth more than $30 million clint dempsey, the most successful american in european club history suddenly became major league soccer's biggest acquisition since david bechham went to los angeles in 2007. >> for me to be honest with you, i thought i was going to be over there two more years. but the opportunity came and seattle sound has really moved mountains to get me back to the states. >> start believing as clint dempsey makes his entrance. >> reporter: already captain of the u.s. national soccer team told us he wanted his three kids to grow stateside where he believes the game has taken a huge leap forward. it's especially in the pacific northwest where seattle sounders soccer is arguably as big as the other kind of football. >> were you aware of how big the game has become in seattle? >> i wasn't. you hear about it, but you don't know until actually you go there. we had a world cup qualifying game there. and it was crazy. and that's great for us because finally are you playing at home

and you have a home field advantage where before it seemed like you never had home field advantage, it's always you are playing against another team and it is almost like you are in a different country at times. >> reporter: nobody played soccer where you grew up? >> i would say people they look at you funny when you told them you what did. >> reporter: with no local soccer role models in texas, as a kid dempsey watched the greats from south america. a freewheeling style he believes can now return to. >> i felt when i was in europe i was a little bit limited in that regard. so looking forward to getting back to doing a little bit more of, you know, the reason why i fell in love with the game. >> reporter: the move though hasn't come without questions. and some wonder why a player at the pinnacle of his profession would reenter a league with significantly less talent. i saw a radio piece that was headlined is clint dempsey too good for the m.l.s. when you see that, what is your reaction? >> it's a compliment that people think i'm a good player. i remember when people didn't think i was good. i remember being the rookie coming into a league with a big chip on my shoulder, trying to

prove myself. and just seems like you got to prove yourself every year. >> reporter: tonight in seattle dempsey will try to prove himself once again. a man nick named captain america is about to be seen a lot more here. jeff glor, cbs news, new york. >> now to one of the rarest forms of another competition, cliff diving, rare because this version doesn't involve an actual cliff, very tough to find in boston. where these cliff divers instead have been launching themselves off a sort of urban cliff, a tall building. in their 90 foot plunge to the water divers hit speeds up to 60 miles an hour. the two day old panda cub at the national zoo is healthy as can be. vets performed a physical this morning on the still unnamed baby. the animal is skroobed as robust and fully formed with a steady heartbeat. what they don't know yet is whether it's a male or female. one sad note, the mother panda

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>> at least 46 people were killed in attacks throughout iraq today including bombings of a coffee shop and a wedding party. the war has brought suffering to iraqi civilians for years and u.s. soldiers have stepped in to help as terrell brown reports. >> reporter: in 2009 captain fanso was on a special mission in iraq when he came across a little boy who had been badly injured by an ied. >> i was kind of shocked to seat extent of his injuries. >> reporter: his name is wy, and he needed a lot of medical attention. >> i didn't want to just allow things to just pass in and out of my life without trying to do something about it. >> reporter: back at his base the captain decided to search the internet for relief agencies. and sent a letter to elisia of santaen, island new york, she runs a nonprofit group called the global medical relief fund.

>> like many other requests i have gotten out of the iraq from the military, he had written asking if i could help this child. >> reporter: when you first saw wy, how was he? >> he was broken. he was missing an eye, his face was terribly scarred. missing an arm and missing a leg. >> reporter: how he is doing now? >> oh, great. he's doing great now. >> reporter: the mission is to help children who have been injured in war and national disasters. he is one of four boys living here getting medical treatment that donated. >> he was restored with youth and dignity. but he has that leg to most of all play soccer because that was what he was really, truly up set about when he had lost his leg. >> a couple of weeks before we met her, she received another e-mail from captain. >> and he said hi, he lease ya, it's mori and i'm now working at the pentagon. how is the charity doing.

and by the way, how is wad. i said oh my god, i said i would love to meet you personally. he said i'm going to make it happen. >> it's nice to meet you. >> then it was time for wad to see the person who had made it all possible. >> oh, look. wow. you haven't changed that much. how are you can sdmoing good to see you. >> look how big you have gotten. let me see you. i think you are he up here now, before you were down here last time i saw you. >> yeah. >> you know, i was trying to calculate in my head how much older he would be and how much he would grow. he looks like the same kid. he's a good soul. so happy kid. great to see him. >> thank you for your help. >> of course. >> i'm so happy for to see you. >> i'm happy to see you too. >> i love you some of. >> i ended up spending a lot of time in iraq there was some very difficult times and some really good times.

and i think wad and my relationship, that symbolizes some of the good things that came out of those ten years in iraq. a lot of great people there. and i wish, for the best future for iraq. >> terrell brown, cbs news, new york. >> and that is the "cbs evening news" for tonight. i'm jim axelrod in new york. for all of us here at cbs news, thanks for joining us, and good night. captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

new zealand overcame today - to take the win-- in the challenger series. this week-- marks 50 years since the historic march on washington for equal rightst tonight we ask -- what has really changed? buzzing helicopter it's small, but mighty. how this remote control helicopter is expected to ce some of the way things are in napa valley. kpix 5 news is next. tkeufplt is small but mighty. how this remote control helicopter. it is small but mighty. how this remote control helicopter will change things. the news is next ,,,,,,

u-s-a for the americas cup. emirates team new zealand -- seen here with the red sail -- bt italy's luna rossa challengr the louis vuitton cup this good evening. the peewees will go